Experiments were concerned with the initial ocular following responses to transient ramp movements of the visual scene in monkeys. These tracking movements are important in the stabilization of gaze which is so necessary for good visual acuity. We had previously shown in monkeys that responses have short latency (50 msec) and are transiently enhanced after saccadic eye movements due to the associated visual disturbance. We now report that saccadic eye movements ae also associated with powerful inhibitory effects on ocular following. This inhibition was shown to be visual in origin and to result from stimulation of the peripheral region of th visual field. For these experiments the visual field was partitioned into central and peripheral regions (center, 20 degrees diameter). Sudden shifts of the peripheral images elicited brief, powerful inhibition of ocular following responses generated by test stimuli at the center. This peripheral suppression showed good intraocular transfer: saccade-like movements of the peripheral field of one eye suppressed the responses elicited by test ramps applied at the center of the other eye. These data indicate that the suppression involves lateral spatial interactions at/or beyond a site that receives input from the two eyes, and hence, must be mediated by the central nervous system. We suggest that this suppression functions to prevent the ocular following system from tracking the visual disturbances caused by saccades: saccade-like movements of the central field alone produced small transient ocular following responses whereas such movements of the periphery or of the whole field did not.